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A Day in the Life of Shadeara
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
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I am a former football player. I played football at the University of Richmond. I still hold Richmond’s career records for receptions and receiving yards. I played football for the Detroit Lions in 1986 and later spent time with the Dallas Cowboys and the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League before retiring due to injuries.My parents are educators. My favorite subject in school was mathematics. Some of my favorite books were Curious George and The Little Engine That Could. Curious George reminded me of myself—curious to the point of getting into trouble sometimes. The Little Engine That Could gave me the motto I use to this day—“I think I can, I think I can.”I worked at NASA’s Langley Research Center helping to develop fiber optic sensors. My hobbies are photography, skateboarding, and cross cross-country motorcycle riding. I have also been a tennis instructor.
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I am a veteran of three Space Shuttle missions, including the first U.S. flight to carry a Russian cosmonaut. Today, I am involved in spaceflight, as the director of Safety and Mission Assurance at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. I flew with the first Japanese astronaut on the Shuttle during my first flight. Persistence was a key to my success. I applied to the astronaut program three times before being accepted. I was a mission specialist on Endeavour STS-47, Discovery STS-60, and Discovery STS-85. Science experiments were conducted on a Spacelab module during the STS-47 1992 joint U.S.-Japanese mission. I served as payload commander on the STS-85 1997 Shuttle flight.
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I was the last man on the Moon. I was the commander of Apollo 17, the last manned mission to land on the Moon in 1972. Alan Shepard was my hero. I was named as Alan Shepard’s backup commander for Apollo 14. By the time of that flight, I actually had more spaceflight experience than Shepard. As a pilot, I became the second American to walk in space during the Gemini IX mission in 1966. In 1969, Commander Tom Stafford and I piloted a lunar lander to within 8 nautical miles of the surface of the Moon, in preparation for the Apollo 11 Moon landing.
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I was the first female Shuttle pilot, and, after piloting two missions, I became the first (and currently only) female Shuttle commander.
I commanded STS-93, on which the Chandra X-ray Observatory was deployed.
My hometown is Elmira, New York.
In 2005, I will command the STS-114 Return To Flight mission, which will carry a crew of seven to the International Space Station
Septa Trip!!!
Monday, July 21, 2008
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